Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus having a wireless direct communication function and a method of controlling the printing apparatus.
Description of the Related Art
As a printing apparatus, such as a multifunction peripheral (MFP) or a printer, there has been widely used one which has a wireless LAN function. The printing apparatus equipped with the wireless LAN function receives print data via an access point from an external apparatus, such as a PC or a mobile terminal, and performs print processing based on the received print data.
Further, some printing apparatuses have a function of wireless direct communication, such as Wi-Fi direct communication, for directly performing wireless LAN communication with an external apparatus without via a relay device, such as an access point, (hereinafter referred to as “performing wireless direct communication”). In Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2013-205982, a printing apparatus has been disclosed which performs communication with a mobile terminal by the function of wireless direct communication.
In the printing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2013-205982, to perform wireless direct communication, first, a user selects a start button or the like for Wi-Fi direct communication from a console section of the printing apparatus, and starts Wi-Fi direct communication. Next, the user selects a connection button from a console section of the mobile terminal to thereby transmit a connection request from the mobile terminal to the printing apparatus. At a time point when the printing apparatus responds to the connection request, wireless direct communication is established.
On the other hand, there are many printing apparatuses, such as one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-181763, which are equipped with a function, called a function of reservation printing, for storing a received print job in a storage area of the printing apparatus without performing pint processing until a user instruction to perform the print processing is given. In the case of such reservation printing, the user is required to go over to the printing apparatus, select the user's reserved print job from a console section of the printing apparatus, and give an instruction to perform print processing of the print job. The function of reservation printing aims to prevent the user from forgetting to take the printed matter formed based on the print job, and allows the print job to be subjected to print processing only in a case where it is assured that the user is in front of the printing apparatus.
However, there is a case where the printing apparatus has an activated setting of reservation printing, and also the user inputs a print job via wireless direct communication, such as Wi-Fi direct communication. In this case, it is assumed that the user is in front of the printing apparatus in order to start wireless direct communication. Therefore, although it is assured that the user is in front of the printing apparatus, the print job input via wireless direct communication is reserved in the printing apparatus, and the user has to take the trouble to perform an operation for causing the printing apparatus to start print processing by searching for the user's print job on the console section, which leads to degraded user-friendliness and an increased operation load on the user.